Buying your first beat online throws a wall of options at you: Standard lease, Premium lease, Exclusive, MP3 vs WAV vs stems, stream limits, distribution copies. Most of it reads like legal small print. Here is what each licence means in plain English, and how to pick the right one without overpaying or getting stuck.
What a beat licence actually is
When you lease a beat you are not buying the beat, you are buying permission to use it under set rules. The producer keeps ownership and can lease the same beat to other artists. That is normal, and for most up-and-coming artists it is the sensible way to release music without spending hundreds on every track. The exception is an exclusive licence, where the beat comes off the market and only you can use it.
Standard lease: for getting started
A Standard lease is the cheapest way to put a track out. You get the beat as a high-quality MP3 and WAV, with limits: a set number of streams (often tens of thousands), a cap on distribution copies, and a limit on paid performances and radio plays. It stays non-exclusive, so the beat is still available to others. If you are releasing your first few singles and seeing what lands, this covers it. The catch is that a track which takes off can hit the stream cap, and then you need to upgrade.
Premium lease: when you are serious about a release
A Premium lease lifts most of those limits, usually to unlimited streams, distribution and performances, and adds the track stems (the separated parts of the beat). Stems matter if you want a proper mix, because your engineer can balance the beat around your vocals instead of working with one flattened file. It is still non-exclusive. Pick this when you are putting real promotion behind a song.
Exclusive licence: when the beat has to be yours
An exclusive licence takes the beat off the store for good. No one else can buy it, you get the full stems, and you have room to build a single or a project around it without another artist releasing the same instrumental next month. It costs more, often a few hundred and up, and it earns that when a beat is central to your sound or you are putting budget behind a video.
A quick way to decide
- Testing ideas and first releases: Standard.
- A single you are promoting properly: Premium, so you get the stems.
- A beat your whole project leans on, or a music video: Exclusive.
Before you buy, check three things
- The numbers. Read the stream and distribution limits and be honest about what you expect.
- Stems. If you care about the mix, get a licence that includes them.
- The contract. A proper store sends a PDF licence setting out exactly what you can do. Read it and keep it.
If you are not sure which licence fits your track, message Simvicious before you buy and you will get a straight answer. You can browse the beats and the three licence tiers on the home page, and the full terms come as a PDF with every licence.